Jon Leidecker certainly has the pedigree. You’re not messing around
when you mention both Negativland and Thurston Moore (Ensemble) in your CV, so
one thing we can all agree on is that expectations should be chucked out the
window as quickly and with as much prejudice as possible. We were primed for
this moment by 2019’s Monitress, also
on Hausu Mountain, having nothing to
do with Popular Monitress despite the
repetition of the word Monitress.
Maybe Leidecker has some connection to women who advise, or monitor, or
admonish, often in a school setting. With Popular
Monitress, the connection can only be one of admiration and support. Can’t
argue otherwise.
But as Wobbly moves from Monitress
to Popular Monitress, it’s
important to note that this is not a “remix” album, or an album connected to Monitress in any thematic way. So we
take it on its own, and while Monitress was
an incredibly engaging listen, Popular
Monitress sort of knocks its socks off. Well, ok, complements it. But that’s not to say that it doesn’t squirm and
squiggle from inception to blooming realization in remarkable and confounding
ways. Utilizing iPhones and iPads, as well as a single grand piano (not
really), Leidecker composes and processes the heck out these MIDI jaunts, synthesizing
a daring and death-defying (not really) song cycle that constantly shifts and
frequently delights with its incredible mobility.
Popular Monitress emerges
fully formed in Hausu style, a perfect exemplar of house sound: mind-expanding
electronic experimentation that’s as wildly unique as it is peculiarly
accessible. From the detritus swirls melody and rhythm, locking into themes
before sandblasting them into unrecognizable otherness, then swirling again
into something new. It has the freewheeling sense of improv, but it’s cleanly
pieced together in recognizable chunks, the complex array of digitized movement
resolving into alien earworms for cultures and species programmed differently
than our own. And this even takes into consideration the actual keyboard-based tracks
like, well, “Every Piano,” which fastens itself to an instrument of our own
world regardless of how it’s played. But it sounds like a piano!
Whatever you’re looking for in this new Wobbly tape, you’ll find it.
Whether it’s the proto-Hausu electro-jammage or the IDM-adjacent rhythmic
workouts, you can’t go wrong. The real treat is trying to trace a thematic line
through this massive beast, 21 tracks, almost an hour long! It’s both harder
and easier to do than you imagine. And it’s an incredible endeavor.
https://hausumountain.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
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